Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...
Discussion
Teddy Lop said:
Sure I said it before but machine mart make an 18v floodlight with adapter plates for all popular makes for £40 - much better value than the brands overpriced efforts.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/nightsearcher-work-star-connect-led-work-light/This one? Looks good.
Edited by A-G on Sunday 4th July 20:27
A-G said:
Teddy Lop said:
Sure I said it before but machine mart make an 18v floodlight with adapter plates for all popular makes for £40 - much better value than the brands overpriced efforts.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/nightsearcher-work-star-connect-led-work-light/This one? Looks good.
Edited by A-G on Sunday 4th July 20:27
dickymint said:
^^^ at the risk of sounding condescending I wouldn't buy another Ryobi tool again - utter crap!
32 years being on sites, housing, industrial, commercial,and I have never come across another trade with Ryobi gear, Makita, blue Bosch, Dewalt and the very odd Millwalkee but never seen any Ryobi.
If professional trades won’t buy it there’s a reason.
On the subject of branded gear…
Ryobi and Milwaukee have the same parent company Techtronic industries (Hong Kong)
De Walt is owned by Black + Decker
B&D invented the hand held drill
Makita
Is it’s own company and invented cordless battery powered drills.
I’ve switched from Bosch to all Makita..
Ryobi and Milwaukee have the same parent company Techtronic industries (Hong Kong)
De Walt is owned by Black + Decker
B&D invented the hand held drill
Makita
Is it’s own company and invented cordless battery powered drills.
I’ve switched from Bosch to all Makita..
Jonboy_t said:
akirk said:
Having just rebuilt and rewired the shed(s) we put in separate circuits including one of red plugs for all the power tools which is separately isolated for safety… I think we managed 98 plugs!
WHYYYYYYY?!?!?! There must have been so many opportunities to do it in order 
very deliberate and to do with the placing of tools down that bench which has on it a fretsaw/jigsaw / pillar drill / bandsaw / sander / Sorby Pro Edge… It needed the plugs in that order
don’t worry, the plugs around the workshop are mainly symmetrical
Northernboy said:
I bought the welder and plunge saw from Lidl, both of which are now filling the boot of my SL.
I don’t have the first idea how or what to weld.
I’ve a garden stove where line of the seams is cracked, is that the sort of thing it’s designed for?
Go to Google and find your nearest Hobbygas stockist. You will need Hobbygas 5. You'll get a bottle of gas with no rental which is of manageable size for the hobbyist.I don’t have the first idea how or what to weld.
I’ve a garden stove where line of the seams is cracked, is that the sort of thing it’s designed for?
As someone else mentioned, go to local steel stockist and ask for any offcuts. Get on YouTube and see what's what. Urchfab is a good channel - look at his earlier stuff.
akirk said:
very deliberate and to do with the placing of tools down that bench which has on it a fretsaw/jigsaw / pillar drill / bandsaw / sander / Sorby Pro Edge… It needed the plugs in that order
don’t worry, the plugs around the workshop are mainly symmetrical
Promised Land said:
akirk said:
very deliberate and to do with the placing of tools down that bench which has on it a fretsaw/jigsaw / pillar drill / bandsaw / sander / Sorby Pro Edge… It needed the plugs in that order
don’t worry, the plugs around the workshop are mainly symmetrical
dickymint said:
Promised Land said:
akirk said:
very deliberate and to do with the placing of tools down that bench which has on it a fretsaw/jigsaw / pillar drill / bandsaw / sander / Sorby Pro Edge… It needed the plugs in that order
don’t worry, the plugs around the workshop are mainly symmetrical
Or shorten it to….
Common parlance often sees it called a plug - agree that is technically inaccurate but it is even there in the Collins dictionary as an informal usage
basherX said:
BlackWidow13 said:
Serious suggestion (although it won’t seem like it is): for a bit under £100 the best thing I bought recently was a Bosch Professional torch. I thought it would be something I’d use once in a blue moon, but it’s genuinely been one of the most useful bits of kit I’ve bought in ages. Never underestimate how useful it is being able to flood whatever you’re working on in very bright light.
I agree. I bought this one albeit can’t recall if it came from screwfix or somewhere else, maybe Amazon. Certainly a very handy thing for those of us who are starting to find it hard to focus on screw heads when our heads are buried on some dark corner…On this subject, I very regularly use a decent head torch for exactly this reason. I have a slightly older equivalent to this Nitecore one which has provided sterling service over the last 5 years and is still going strong. Having a bright light fixed to your head brings the added convenience that whatever you're looking at is always illuminated.
Of course the subject of torches can lead you to quite a rabbit hole (link to torch thread with over 3600 posts).
AndrewCrown said:
On the subject of branded gear…
Ryobi and Milwaukee have the same parent company Techtronic industries (Hong Kong)
De Walt is owned by Black + Decker
B&D invented the hand held drill
Makita
Is it’s own company and invented cordless battery powered drills.
I’ve switched from Bosch to all Makita..
Indeed - interesting graphic on this:Ryobi and Milwaukee have the same parent company Techtronic industries (Hong Kong)
De Walt is owned by Black + Decker
B&D invented the hand held drill
Makita
Is it’s own company and invented cordless battery powered drills.
I’ve switched from Bosch to all Makita..
Flooble said:
Similarly my Ryobi Impact Driver is absolutely fine and the battery lasts for ages.
INdeed there will always be cases on both sides.I have, 18v
Ryobi
Hammer drill - flawless, been using for years.
Impact driver - superb
165mm circular saw - hopeless
Soldering iron - superb - though runs too hot
Caulking gun - epic for teh money and allowing my tennis elbow to recover!
Heat gun - uber convenient when working on vehicles
Hedge trimmer - works fine
Strimmer - superb
Chain saw - bloody great! chopped down a 6inch plus wide tree and logged it all on two 5ah batteries.
I have 4 batteries - original 5ah and 1 ah , plus two after market 5ah. The original 5ah is on its last legs, all the rest great.
Dewalt
Jigsaw - great
circular saw - great! superb.
Impact wrench (reattle gun) - unreal (the big one)
1 aftermarket 5ah battery.
Mostly all great stuff, apart from the Ryobi saw. So I'd not say Ryobi are junk - but then I'm not comparing them to Milwaukee etc.
I work every day in my home-factory using a lot fo the tools daily. So I'd put myself in a small manufacturing class.(trade I suppose)
Currently looking for some cordless garden tools. I use erbauer kit so have 3 batteries to make use of (inc a 5Ah) and I’m thinking a hedge trimmer and a strimmer.
Anybody have experience if the strimmer v the brush cutter? The strimmer seems to be a wider base but the brush cutter only seems to specify the metal head width rather than the cord one.
Also like the look of the bull handles as I have to cut the verge along our 60m boundary with the road, I feel like the standard strimmer might be a bit heavy by the time I’m at the end.
Anybody have experience if the strimmer v the brush cutter? The strimmer seems to be a wider base but the brush cutter only seems to specify the metal head width rather than the cord one.
Also like the look of the bull handles as I have to cut the verge along our 60m boundary with the road, I feel like the standard strimmer might be a bit heavy by the time I’m at the end.
akirk said:
dickymint said:
Promised Land said:
akirk said:
very deliberate and to do with the placing of tools down that bench which has on it a fretsaw/jigsaw / pillar drill / bandsaw / sander / Sorby Pro Edge… It needed the plugs in that order
don’t worry, the plugs around the workshop are mainly symmetrical
Or shorten it to….
Common parlance often sees it called a plug - agree that is technically inaccurate but it is even there in the Collins dictionary as an informal usage
Many years ago when I worked in theatre, I found a venue where every lantern had been wired with a trailing plug socket. Meanwhile the internally-wired lighting bars had dangling tails of flex, each with a plug (in theatre speak we call them plug tops to be specific). If you didn't connect all the lanterns to all of the tails, when a lighting channel was run up (made live), those dangling pins would go live... Very reassuring when working up metal scaffolding adjacent to them... The guy who'd wired it all up (a Geography teacher, if memory serves) was oblivious to the danger - following "common parlance" he had wired up the tails with "plugs"...
Imagine this bar, but with trailing plug tops...
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